[nitinbud]

help need kinda urgent. i went for an oil change on my 02 bug WRX, and the mechanic showed me a chip in the sidewall of the tire. front passenger. he said it might be bad, and i researched online, and they say that chipped sidewalls are potentially dangerous. i am attaching photos. the tires have half life left and i dont want to change all tires, its expensive and wasteful. any suggestions would be great!

 

[nitinbud]

also anyone heard of tire shaving? tire rack does it.

 

[KHP]

I've never heard of tire shaving. However if you do end up having to replace the tire. You have to replace all of them.

Welcome to the world of AWD. If you think replacing all the tires are expensive and wasteful. Just wait till you burn up your drive-train by just replacing one tire. Cost of the tires are a lot cheaper than replacing your diffs, bearings, and other parts that would have burned out.

*Edit*
Alright I've read about tire shaving. If you go this route. You need a matching tire to the rest of your set (matching brands and model). If you go this route you have to accurately measure your tires remaining tread and see if they're capable of shaving down a new tire to match the rest of your set.

 

[nitinbud]

thank you! yeah im aware of this AWD situation. I have replaced one set of all 4 tires already. I was just wondering if looking at those pictures anyone can guess whether this is harmful or not!

 

[KHP]

It looks intact still. I would be concerned that if you hit a bump in that area of the tire. It could cause the tire to bulge out or cause a blow out. Great decision on replacing all of them.

 

[nitinbud]

so far thinking of calling tire rack and asking them about the tire shaving service. thats the cheapest option so far. but im not sure how exactly they know how much tread to shave off!

 

[xxxxxxxAnub1s]

That's a pretty deep gouge there. I would definitely replace that tire at least. Remember that when you're driving the air pressure in the tires become greater with the increased heat. Once that pressure increases, it places greater strain on the sidewalls. If those sidewalls are weakened by something like this, you have a MUCH greater chance of a blow out.

Tire shaving is available, but you need to measure your current tread thicknesses all around. You absolutely must get the tire shaved to within 2/32" tread difference of the other tires. No one tire on an AWD car should be outside of a 2/32" tread difference from any other tire. If you have such a problem, time to replace the tires and decrease your rotation intervals.

 

[nitinbud]

yeah that is deep. in the meantime, we;re just going to be really careful and drive slow. anyone with any other thoughts?